Why is there global warming ?

Question

Why is there global warming ?

Answer 1

Ok. Science lesson!

So oil as we know it came from decomposed animal matter, most likely dinosaurs. And everything is made of carbon, including the dinosaurs and including oil. Carbon is the main energy source in oil. When we burn it, all the carbon that was trapped within the oil gets released into the air and creates green house gasses because carbon likes to bond with oxygen. And that bond creates the green house reaction. So the more carbon we release into the air, the more green house gasses are let into the air, the hotter the earth gets.

Answer 2

Global Warming is the ongoing increase in the Earth’s temperatures caused by the emission of greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s warmth in the atmosphere.

Answer 3

Global warming and greenhouse gasses:

The earth is surrounded by a cover of gasses as atmosphere. This atmosphere allows most of the light to pass through, which reaches the surface of earth. This light from sun is absorbed by the earth surface and converts into heat energy. This heat energy is re-emitted by the surface of the earth during night. Due excessive presence of some gasses in the atmosphere, this escape of heat from earth surface is prevented, resulting in heating of earth called ‘global warming’. The gasses which are responsible for causing global warming are called ‘greenhouse gasses’.

The harmful effects of presence of greenhouse gasses in atmosphere are global warming, climate change, ozone depletion, sea level rise, adverse effects on biodiversity etc. One way or another these adverse impacts are all directly or indirectly related to the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. A number of human activities, processes and consumptions produce waste gasses or greenhouse gasses that are harmful to the environment. They include:

(a) Fuel combustion

(b) Energy industries

(c) Manufacturing industries and construction

(d) Vehicle Transport and automobiles

(e) Fugitive emissions from fuels

(f) Burning of solid fuels

(g) Use of oil and natural gas

(h) Mineral products

(i) Chemical industry

(j) Metal production

(k) Production of halocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride

(l) Consumption of halocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride

(m) Solvent and other product use

(n) Enteric fermentation

(o) Manure management

(p) Rice cultivation

(q) Agricultural soils

(r) Prescribed burning of savannas

(s) Field burning of agricultural residues

(t) Solid waste disposal on land

(u) Wastewater handling

(v) Waste incineration

Much of these harmful gases are produced either naturally or by various human activities; which we should reduce.

For further information on various aspects of environmental issues please refer my blog: http://environmentengineering.blogspot.c...

Answer 4

Its a NATURAL cycle the earth goes thru, and has for millions of years.

Only the vain think humans have anything to do with it.

The last warming was 20 million years before man

Answer 5

So oil as we know it came from decomposed animal matter, most likely dinosaurs. And everything is made of carbon, including the dinosaurs and including oil. Carbon is the main energy source in oil. When we burn it, all the carbon that was trapped within the oil gets released into the air and creates green house gasses because carbon likes to bond with oxygen. And that bond creates the green house reaction. So the more carbon we release into the air, the more green house gasses are let into the air, the hotter the earth gets.!

Answer 6

Because of the fossil fuels that are being burned  are creating  a deep hole into the  ozone layer.....don't believe anyone who said that it isn't real because it is and they are just saying that because they are making an excuse to continue whatever they are doing that is bad......

Answer 7

It's where there is a significant increase in greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere through both artificial and natural means that causing the atmosphere to absorb more heat from the sun.  Thus making the Earth hotter.

Answer 8

Global warming is the increase in the temperature due to increase in level of carbon dioxide(CO2) in earths atmosphere. the CO2 traps the heat rays comming from the sun not letting it reflect back to space.

Answer 9

Some people who answer this question is totally right about global warming and let me just say it in words that i can possibly make it understandable.

It is said in so many ways by watching TV programs reading documentary and reading facts thats its said to be believed.

People go to many places where the world has gotten more hotter then before in years later.

Its true what some people say that we cant actually explain why other turn to science for help so we switch to theories facts understanding.

Global warming could exist we cant stop it if it exist because of our selfish way of burning fossils fuels which we humans use it to live our daily lives.

As we always thought when we burn more fossil fuels we add more toxic chemicals into the air rather it comes from any power and chemical plants factories business and homes and even when we drive and use any type of transportation.

We humans refuses to believe that because many people say it natural and that the world freeze 3 times in millions if not thousand of years and that desert places we see today had trees lakes grass and many plant and animal life.

It was said that Alaska was at the equator millions of years ago and that north and south poles were actually warm and had no ice.

Its was also said that when the world froze over 3 times in millions or billions years that world kept changing its axis and also kept changing from north to south and east to west.

And people are believing that the earth is getting closer and closer to the sun and the moon is moving away from the earth which there are so many if not endless possibilities about global warming.

We been thinking about if humans caused the world to melt the its ice caps or if its humans fault that causing the world to get even hotter.

We been thinking about human possibilities but most of use we havent thinking if its natural or not. We cant expect everything we say or discovered to be true.

For all i can say we might and might not be the fault of global

warming. It might be a coincidence or not our world is probably changing its axis again just like it did over millions of years.

We are thinking of so many possibilities we have to decide just one possibility for all we know probably our earth is dying losing strength and probably the earth core is burning out and collapsing.

We have thousand if not endless of possibilities that what might be causing global warming or if global warming even exist we turn to the scientist for help for all we know the answer is probably in front of our faces and the sky.

Just think what can happened if we didnt had scientist and we didnt have possibilities what causing our earth to go warm suddenly over the centuries and time.

For all we know we should go back in time to see what made the world go beserk and why is the world climate keep changing every century or thousand of years.  

God bless thank you for your question it was most fun and understanding to answer it.

Thanks again interesting question.

Answer 10

1) What portion of global warming can be attributed to increased greenhouse gases due to human activities?

It’s uncertain. Greenhouse gases have dramatically increased in the past 120 years, and most definitely due to human activities. But how this impacts a climate system we know so little about is uncertain. For example, couldn’t this warming be natural? Global temperatures are thought to have differed over ice ages by as much as 18 degrees F, so 1.5 degrees F could very well be mostly a natural process. Because of the natural variability in our climate system and our inability to piece together a "climate timeline"over centuries with no weather records, we can't make a quantitative assertion as to the portion of global warming attributed to anthropogenic contributions or to the natural variability of Earth's climate.

This is a key question to answer, because it might mean that humans are the main cause. Although it is uncertain at the moment, many scientists hypothesize that humans ARE the main cause. If this is the case, then I'd like to think that with science and research, we can find a way to mitigate or all together end the portion of global warming from human activities. If the answers is that humans have very little impact on global warming, well then there might not be a lot for us to do except let the natural evolution of the Earth take place and try to adapt.

Bottom line: Too uncertain to give you anything better than an educates guess. I'll take an educated guess on a $1.00 bet if it will rain tomorrow, but I don't think an educated guess is good enough when the consequences impact a global market like natural gas extraction and fossil fuel plants.

Answer 11

Short answer -

humans are basically short-term and selfish; like most animals we seek to make ourselves as individuals more comfortable here and now and are not very good at big picture, long-term thinking...

The more technical answer -

Human activity, especially burning fossil fuels, has added a lot of pollution into the atmosphere. Some of this pollution reflects the sun's heat energy back into space but others - CO2, CFCs, methane, etc - 'trap' the sun's energy on the earth. This is because these so-called 'greenhouse gases' (GHGs) are permeable only to certain wavelengths of energy.

They let  energy from the sun through which then strikes the ground, oceans and plants and gets reflected back.

Unfortunately, as it gets reflected, the wavelengths also change (e.g. plants are a different colour than the sun); the GHGs don't allow these wavelengths through hence the energy, that would previously have bounced back into space, is retained on Earth, causing the planet to warm up.

The biggest contributor to global warming is CO2 - not because it is such a good 'trapper' of heat but because there has been so much of it added to the atmosphere in the past couple of centuries.

This added CO2 is (according to the UN) over 90% likely to have come from human activities.

The biggest confusion over GW is that it is about how hot the planet will get - this is less of a concern than the speed at which the planet is warming up.

The Earth has been hotter in the past however the speed of the change in the climate has only been five times before and each time, life was more or less 'wiped out' (up to 90% of all species extinct).

Now for the corrections!

Dawgz -

1 As I said, it's the speed, not the absolute value

2 Water vapour IS a greenhouse gas. However, it is not being added to the atmosphere (hence cannot be responsible for climate CHANGE). It is, however, an accelerant to the process: More CO2 = hotter earth = more evaporation (e.g. from oceans) = more vapour = more trapped heat = hotter earth... Note that the process needed the added CO2 in the first place; the reason why proponents don't mention it is because it is not relevant when discussing causes of GW

3 CO2 is a trace gas, yes. So what? Lithium is a trace element in your body - try living without it! Impact is what counts not percentages

4 The climate mechanisms on other planets have no relevance to our own climate except for knowledge

5 The if the globe warms, the climate changes - only a few people have difficulty understanding the two terms

Megadeth - the latest IPCC report, the most comprehensive, non-biased and inclusive study of GW reports that it is over 90% certain that humans are responsible for the increase in GHGs - it's not uncertain at all

P.S. In today's paper, the Australian government is quoted as saying that man-made global warming is responsible for at least 50% of the 10-fold increase in drought conditions in that country: Man-made GW is now set to wipe out US$380 billion from Oz GDP - close to 5% of the economy.

Answer 12

The ozone layer is being destroyed.  Too many humans engaging in too many destructive activities, to make a long story short.

Answer 13

The science community is pretty much certain it isn't a natural process, it has nothing to do with the ozone hole. And the comment that humans are being vain is pointless when the many different way humans are damaging the world is painfully obvious.

Answer 14

because this world is getting older just like human its getting fragille

Answer 15

Global Warming has been occuring naturally throughout the life of this planet.

We are currently experiencing warming since 10,000years ago.  It's why the Bering Land Bridge which was available 13,000years ago is now submerged below sea level.  See URL#1

The Earth maintains the liveable temperatures due to what is called a Greenhouse Effect, otherwise it would be 60F colder.  The main contributor to this warming is a Greenhouse or Global Warming Gas known as Water Vapor.  See URL#2

Most Pro-AGW arguments never mention Water Vapor nor what percentage it represents in our atmosphere.  Even the NOAA doesn't mention percentages...but they do mention that Carbon Dioxide is a Trace Gas.

You may be interested to know, that true Carbon Dioxide caused Global Warming is now occuring on Mars...where we have yet to operate an SUV!  See URL#3

It seems that anyone who wants Government Funding now lists AGW as fact and Carbon Dioxide as the driving force.

Oh, and now it's actually being referred to as Climate Change...I guess the temperature of the past few years hasn't been cooperating with the Warming aspect!

Shani, correction...please see URL#4 for origins of oil.

Answer 16

The sun plays a major part, as does natural cycles. Review this graph and you will see the cycle very plainly. We have nothing to do with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ice_A...

Answer 17

It's because of all the carbon dioxide and other emissions dumped int the air by factories cars and other things thet we use in our daily lives and also don't forget all the trees that are being cut.

Answer 18

its either us that causing it

or

the world is naturally getting hotter

u decided